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To: Uncle Frank who wrote (92948)	1/30/2001 10:39:31 AM
From: gdichaz	Respond to of 152472

Uncle Frank: Yes, your points are well taken - the gsm camp is hurting overall - especially when perceptions are taken into account - as they must be realistically. Best. Chaz

To: Uncle Frank who wrote (92948)	1/30/2001 11:16:50 AM
From: T L Comiskey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Unc...as to build out ... .this Disasater in India will impact that country for years to come.........not only the incredible loss of Life and property...but future growth also... Bhuj sits in an area that is ranked highly in industrial output and personal income...... Indian Quake Survivors Give Rescuers New Hope BHUJ, India (Reuters) - A handful of survivors including an infant and an elderly woman were rescued on Tuesday after more than four days buried under the rubble of India's worst earthquake in half a century. The news offered respite from the grim devastation of Friday's earthquake and gave new hope to rescue workers who had all but given up finding people still alive. Defense Minister George Fernandes said he feared up to 100,000 people might have died in the quake, which left a carpet of debris across the once prosperous western state of Gujarat. "If my worst fears come true the death toll could be in six figures," he said after touring ravaged areas. In Gujarat's commercial capital Ahmedabad, a woman and her infant son were plucked from a collapsed four-story apartment, severely dehydrated but alive. A fireman digging up the area to look for bodies spotted 33-year-old Nalini Kumbhare and her 14-month-old son when he punched a small hole in a wall. Exhausted rescuers beamed after the two were found. "This has given us a lot more enthusiasm," said one. In Bhuj, some 12 miles from the epicenter of the quake, a British rescue team retrieved a 24-year-old computer management student from New Jersey. Veeral Dalal, who had been on vacation when the quake struck, told reporters he had spent four days lying on his bed with the ceiling just eight inches above his head. His apartment building, leaning precariously to one side, had been scheduled for demolition. The British team had checked it on Monday and found nobody. Then people heard his voice on Tuesday and brought the team back. In the town of Bhachau, a Russian team rescued a woman in her early 70s. "I have been coming here every day since the earthquake and shouting out hoping someone would hear." said one of her relatives. On Tuesday morning he heard a faint response. But for tens of thousands of bereaved families there was little to console them. In some remote villages in the coastal marshlands of the Kutch, which bore the brunt of the quake, rescue operations have barely begun. Those able to take possession of bodies retrieved from the debris hastily cremated them in makeshift roadside ceremonies. Despite the omnipresent smell from decomposing corpses, there was no report of disease breaking out. "There is no disease as of now," B. Srivastava, superintendent of police for Kutch district, told Reuters. But fear of fresh tremors and the prospect of a fifth night in the open triggered a mini-exodus of thousands of better-off residents of Ahmedabad. "People are leaving in all directions. Some are going to Bombay and others are leaving for Delhi and Rajasthan," said an official at Ahmedabad rail station, where travelers jostled for space as they waited for the next train out. Some 20,000 Indian soldiers, joined by international teams from Britain, France, Russia, Turkey and Switzerland, have been combing the rubble in search of people still alive. PRIORITY SHIFTS TO FEEDING, SHELTERING HOMELESS But by Tuesday the priority was shifting to providing food and shelter for the tens of thousands of survivors made homeless by the quake, which measured 7.9 on the Richter scale. "State government has very clear priorities, presently they need tents and shelter materials, earthmoving equipment, equipment to cut concrete slabs, mobile hospitals," a senior government official said. He added they were also sending in bleaching powder to protect against the outbreak of any epidemic. The road to Bhuj was packed with lorries transporting wood for funeral pyres and water trucks. Survivors were being fed at community kitchens. There were unconfirmed reports of looting in remote villages. Like many people in rural India, the villagers of Gujarat keep their wealth in gold, either in jewelry or in gold bars and guineas, which they store under beds or in family trunks. Reuters reporters said they saw no evidence of looting though some people had returned to their homes briefly to retrieve anything of value. India is no stranger to disasters but the sheer scale of Friday's quake has shattered people across the country. "As a human disaster this is bigger than anything we have experienced. The devastation is also rather more widespread," B.G. Verghese of the Center for Policy Research said. He said however that the magnitude of the damage was higher on account of recent growth in the economy and population of Gujarat, making comparisons with other disasters inappropriate. "South Asia is among the world's most vulnerable regions to both natural and human-made disasters," said a report released last year by the British charity Oxfam. "A tough mesh of poverty, rampant and unplanned urbanization, chronic malnutrition and nightmarish population densities has trapped its people," it said.